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The two saddest days in football for me as a kid were (1) Vince Hilaire leaving Palace and (2) him getting a load of racist abuse at Selhurst when he came back with Pompey. Everyone did it at the time, Palace were no better or worse. Among the happiest days was watching Vince single handedly take apart Leeds Utd circa 1980ish, took on several players then slotted in from a tight angle. Like Wright and Zaha after him, you expected something special whenever he got the ball. Unlike them, he had a certain floating elegance to his style. A bit like Michael Jordan, the top half seemed to stay still as he ran.

OThere was a short documentary about him on ITV in the summer of 1976, also titled Vince - but apart from this short clip, it seems nobody has the full documentary anymore - shame because it is still amongst the most exciting times in our club's history.

Vince will always be a hero to the Palace fans that saw him play, an exhilariting player who seemed destined for greater things than actually materialised, but still great and cherished memories and evocative of one the most enjoyable eras in my time following Palace.

NB - Just realised, the building you can see outside the Palace Boardroom where Vince is signing his first full professional terms - is Lady Edridge School, roughly where the Fanzone and those houses that are in Wooderson Close are sited now.

Cool! Vince was my first and pretty much only idol, I played left wing as a kid.

In that clip Venables mentioned just coming back from Holland, I think that was the first time I saw Palace play I was born in NL (Dads from Thornton Heath), saw Palace play a local semi pro side, Rijnsburger boys. The only thing I remember from the game is Venables shouted 'give the ref some *******
verbals' to one of our players.

Anyway I want the book!

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The two saddest days in football for me as a kid were (1) Vince Hilaire leaving Palace and (2) him getting a load of racist abuse at Selhurst when he came back with Pompey. Everyone did it at the time, Palace were no better or worse. Among the happiest days was watching Vince single handedly take apart Leeds Utd circa 1980ish, took on several players then slotted in from a tight angle. Like Wright and Zaha after him, you expected something special whenever he got the ball. Unlike them, he had a certain floating elegance to his style. A bit like Michael Jordan, the top half seemed to stay still as he ran.

Didn’t realise Vince was racially abused on his return. . I was at that game and remember the incessant boos he got which saddened me too being my hero and all. I was in the Whitehorse family bit so I guess the more hateful abuse was lost on me. Do remember him being sent off at the end though. Wasn’t it for kicking out at one of our players?

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“Supporting Palace has a certain cult value – like pretending that some Peruvian rock band is the best in the world.”
- John Peel

Cool! Vince was my first and pretty much only idol, I played left wing as a kid.

In that clip Venables mentioned just coming back from Holland, I think that was the first time I saw Palace play I was born in NL (Dads from Thornton Heath), saw Palace play a local semi pro side, Rijnsburger boys. The only thing I remember from the game is Venables shouted 'give the ref some *******
verbals' to one of our players.

Anyway I want the book!

At one of the matches in Holland, the legendary Wiz, who can still be seen regularly at Palace away games, ran from behind the goal to clear a certain Dave Swindlehurst goal - may have been the same game!

At one of the matches in Holland, the legendary Wiz, who can still be seen regularly at Palace away games, ran from behind the goal to clear a certain Dave Swindlehurst goal - may have been the same game!

Eagle Eye mention IIRC that Phil Holder wasn't best pleased as I think winning away by 7 might have been a club record!

The one and only player ever who could do a whole body clean diving tackle from behind and use his right buttock as a fulcrum and lift himself back up and be flying away with the ball taken from a bemused opponent in 0.55 seconds.

Yep, he was a genius at that particular move. These days of course the player losing the ball would just sit down and wait for the referee to award him a free kick.

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"Act as if what you do makes a difference........it does."

[QUOTE=Am Phibian;14073907]The one and only player ever who could do a whole body clean diving tackle from behind and use his right buttock as a fulcrum and lift himself back up and be flying away with the ball taken from a bemused opponent in 0.55 seconds.[/QUOTE)

Hope not. 7 years compared to 4 years of his career, many more games here, plus he had a dressing room with Sansom, Budgie, Cannon (did he have the same problems Wright had with him), Gerry Francis, crowd of 52k, being top of the league (for a week), the rise and collapse of the club, Malcolm Allison returning, Venables era, Ron coming in.....plus Billy Gilbert!! I'd say a healthy bit on his time at Pompey but an even healthier bit on his time here.

Wright was, is and always will be a cocky **** act like that with old pros you will get grief from old pros, what did he expect when he nutmegged Jim Cannon that he would get a round of applause

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"And then when it was all over, a thousand Palace fans stayed on to applaud their side's warm-down and the strains of Glad All Over crashed out across Selhurst. Daft little tune .......brave little team"

One of the best performances of his is when we played Middlesbrough with 9 men in a crowd less than 5,000.

He was brilliant causing havoc; winning a penalty which if it hadn’t been given would’ve caused a riot.

5,000 sounded like 20,000

This is going to be another one of those matches where more people say they were there than officially attended!
I, however, was there.
1978/79 was my first season as a supporter - we went to 15 home games and Vince was sublime. The whole crowd on their toes every time he set off.
Unlike Wilf he was only one of a number of talented individuals. It seems crazy now that he wasn't a shoo-in for Player of The Year but with Sansom, Cannon, Gilbert et al we were an embarrassment of riches.
Great times, Great player. Hope it's a good book.